Guide to succes in Tol Barad

Introduction

Most likely everything that will be written in this guide has already been written or said in one form or another. I don't mean to reinvent hot water. I am also not entirely certain if I am qualified to write a guide for this, as I don't even have that much experience. You are all free to check my achievements, of course. That said, I feel I have a bit of a grasp on how TB should be played, both in attack and defence. Using the following strategy, we succeeded in keeping TB in Alliance hands for two days. It has been lost today through sheer inexperience of some people not grasping the strategy, so I guess it isn't harmful to write up a little bit of a guide for everyone to read: for the newly dinged PvP'ers to get tips from, or for the grizzled veterans to approvingly nod at... :-)

The first part of this guide will be a theoretical summary of what Tol Barad is. Feel free to skip this first part and head to the juicy stuff, if you must, but if you are absolutely new to TB when stumbling upon this post, I encourage you to read it. The second post will be about defending, the third about attacking, and then I'm probably going to write up a fourth one for general hints. I can get quite lengthy at times, but each section will have a TLDR version as well. :-)

What is Tol Barad, or TB?

Tol Barad is a bit of the same principle as Wintergrasp in Northrend. It is a physical area in the game, rather than a normal Battleground, that is held by one faction at a time. The faction that holds Tol Barad will have access to six daily quests for either Baradin Wardens (Alliance side) or Hellscream's Reach (Horde side) reputation, not to mention the badges which act as a currency to buy goodies from said factions. Also, more importantly, the faction that controls Tol Barad will have access to the raid instance Baradin Hold.

A battle takes place every two hours, where the controlling team attempts to hold Tol Barad for another two hours and the attacking team attempts to take over. 15 minutes prior to start, people are able to queue up for the battle. Interesting to note is that the queue system attempts to match teams: only as many players of a certain faction can join as there are players in the other team. For instance, if there are only 30 Horde players in the queue, only the first 30 Alliance players will be called to battle, even if there were over a 100 players in the Alliance queue. This keeps Tol Barad battles balanced at any time (although I do believe there is a certain minimum, and if less people than that minimum queue, they will be outnumbered) but it also means that getting in is not that always guaranteed. If you want to be certain of a spot, make sure to queue up as soon as possible when the 15 minute timer starts. You can queue up via the honor screen, like a normal BG, or you can physically go to Tol Barad and a pop up will ask if you want to join the queue. Lately I am always getting in, even when I join a minute before the battle, so that either means that it is less crowded than it used to be, or more Horde people are joining. :-)

In Tol Barad there are six buildings of importance: three bases and three towers.

The bases will be held by the controlling faction at the start of the battle. In the north we have Ironclad Garrison (IG), in the southwest there is Warden's Vigil (WV) and the one in the southeast is Slagworks (SW). Every base has a front entrance and two side entrances, and a flagpole roughly in the middle. The Whichever faction has the most players around that flagpole, controls the base, and the bigger the difference, the faster the flag turns. Needless to say that numbers alone is not enough: there is always a slight margin time before the flag turns, so if you succeed in killing the enemy's players faster than they kill yours, you have a bigger chance of capping (or keeping) the base.

There are also three towers. The attackers initially have 10 minutes to conquer the three bases to take over TB, but on three separate spots around the middle, siege engines will spawn. With these siege engines, the attackers can take down the three towers: for every tower they manage to destruct, they get 5 extra minutes to win. So, there is a total of 15 extra minutes to be gained for the attackers.

But I see I am already slowly switching to strategics, so let's not postpone this any longer and get to the killing tactics!

Defending Tol Barad

Slightly against chronological rules, I'll be discussing defence first, since I have more experience with it and it is, in fact, a lot easier than attacking. As with all medieval fortress battles, defenders in Tol Barad have an advantage over the attackers. When the timer runs out, they win with just one base controlled, why the attackers have to take all bases: that is the most noticable advantage.

But almost equally important is the resurrection place: the defending faction resurrects at the middle, needing only about 20 secs time (even less than that) to get to the base of their choice. The attacking faction resurrects at the base they died closest by and are, as a whole, far less mobile because of that. That is your advantage in defence, and that is what your entire strategy should revolve around.

The start

So, you start at Baradin Hold, the middle tower (which is neutral, just a ressurrection place for the defending faction and the location of the dailies if you control TB). What now?

In my personal experience and opinion, the first minutes of TB are the most crucial for the defenders (and maybe for the attackers as well). What you do in those few minutes makes or breaks the game.

It is encouraged to send out a few scouts (rogues or druids in stealth) to each base just to monitor movement of the other team. The rest of the defending force should just move to one single base and then wait there for the attackers to make their move. At this point you should be able to rely on your scouts to give information where the opposing faction is heading to and where the main force is. And of course, soon enough, that base will fall. Whatever happens, don't take the bulk of your defending force to that location - that will result in an almost certain loss, and very quickly too. Inexperienced people and/or immature nerdragers will yell over raid channel to "come and help IG/WV/slags FFS noobs!" (whatever just has fallen) but ignore them.

Instead, stay where you are and wait for the opposing force to attack. Here is where your scouts should do their work again, to say where the main attacking force is heading to. This way you know what you are up against. But it is safe to assume that, by the time they attack, they will quickly get the two other bases - they are using scouts as well, of course.

Right before they attack the base you are defending at the moment, a few people (max. 20% of your defending force, preferable somewhat less) should start heading to the base that is currently the least defended by the attacking force. If you still have two bases, don't have them go to the other one that is still under your control. Instead, move to the one base that the attacking faction just captured. If the attacking faction already has two bases by now (which is more likely) move to the one that is least defended. Usually, if they are smart enough, they will already have two bases before they engage your main defensive force, but that also works in your advantage: they have to split up their defence.

Having the biggest part of your entire force still at the first base, the attacking faction needs time and manpower to capture it. The defenders who die during this attack, should move as fast as possible to the base the first small attack party was already engaging. The principle is to retake another base before your current one is lost. If you succeed in doing that, the juggling of bases can start and the hardest part is actually done.

Juggling bases

When you started good, this part should be easy if everyone does what they are supposed to do. First I want to explain the concept of juggling bases, as that should be the defending faction's main strategy for the rest of the match. Think about juggling three balls: the principle is that you should always have one ball in each hand and one in the air, and you switch them over. Only a bit more rapidly than this sounds, but that is the principle... :-)

It's just the same with defending Tol Barad, really, only there the balls are the bases, and you should be "juggling bases". Try to hold onto two bases at all times, but always leave the bulk of your defensive force at one single base, and a smaller part at another base. The attacking faction will most likely engage the least defended one. Keep that as long as possible, but don't fret too much over losing it, because it will be lost eventually. Just make it last a bit. Most likely, some people in the bigger defensive force will be tempted to go and support the base that is currently being attacked, but by all means, don't let them. Stay where you are at all times when defending.

Another general rule of thumb that should always, and I mean always be followed: when you die defending a base, never ever return to the base you just died at. As a defender, you resurrect in the middle and have a quicker access to all three bases than the attackers. Use that advantage and move to the one the attacking faction is currently holding. If you are in some trouble and they hold two, go to the one least defended. But again, never to the one you just died at. The objective is, just like in the start, to capture that base right before the one that is under the heaviest attack falls. Communication is very crucial here, and every resser should know where to go next when he's waiting to be resurrected.

Keeping a bigger force at one base ensures that you have a bit of a time margin for the ressers to retake a base. Even if you are unlucky and you can't retake a previously lost base faster than the attackers take a second base, you still have a bit of time left in which you hold one base. Most of the time, that should be sufficient for the ressers to retake.

If two bases fall at roughly the same time, then you're in trouble. But that still doesn't mean it's a loss. If your scouts are able to say where the least of the attacking force remains, just go there with every resser available. If you don't have any scouts anymore or they are not able to pinpoint the least defended location, just move all your ressers to a base of your choice. The important part is that all ressers should move to the same base. And here again, the base where your main defensive force is, is your strong point, and that is why the biggest force should never split up.

What about the towers?

If you are certain you can spare the people, you might want to try and keep the siege engines from destroying the towers, giving the attackers less time. But in reality, it's not easy and certainly not necessary if you stick to the juggling strategy. If you can spare the men for it, be my guest. But really, don't focus on it and certainly don't gimp your defence. The bases will always have priority, and to be honest, if you spend too much effort keeping the towers safe, the attackers will have a much easier time conquering TB in less than 10 minutes and your efforts will be for naught anyway.

TLDR version

If you are defending a base, in general never move, stay and defend until you die. If you're dead, move to the base currently under control by the attacking faction - if there are two of them, the one least defended.

Attacking Tol Barad

Concept

As I said previously, I don't have that much experience with attacking, but as it would be silly to only write a defence guide, I will try to share what I know.

Attacking is a lot harder, as you have less mobility and you have to take the first moves at all times, so that the defending faction can actually counter everything. But while the defenders have the biggest advantage in general, the advantage you have is also twofold: firstly, attackers resurrect at the base they were closest by, which means they can easily keep pushing individual bases and will eventually always win at any given base, no matter the strength of the defensive force. Granted, if it's big, they will definately retake other bases before you win, but it's still a nice thing to keep in mind.

The second big advantage is that, as the attacking faction, you only need one major slip-up from the defenders to win, one moment, one fraction of a second, while the defenders have to keep one base at all times for at least 10 minutes. Use that to your advantage and focus on blitzkrieg attacks.

You should appoint a few people (not a lot) to destroy the towers. The siege engines can be driven to a tower and deployed there, and they will automatically shoot at the tower, so that in theory all towers could be destroyed by one single person. If the defenders choose to defend towers a bit, put slightly more people on them. As I said in the above post, focusing too much on defending towers is a huge sacrifice for the defenders, so you will either take the towers, either get a good advantage if you can keep a few defenders busy with them. Win-win situation right there. For attackers, the time you get destroying towers is priceless. Ideally, the lesser geared ones for PvP should focus on the towers, although you will be lucky if people actually admit to that... ;-)

Also, just like in defence, use scouts to monitor which base is the heaviest in defence. Then, the one thing you should try in the start is cap the two other bases at the same time. Contrary to the defence strategy, you should divide your force in two right from the start and cap those bases. Chances are that, when you zerg the third base with almost your entire force, the defence will be confused somewhat as to what base to go first and you can capture before they retake one. Boom, fast win if you're lucky enough.

If this doesn't work, if the defending faction retakes a base before the third one is taken, you should rely on blitzkrieg attacks now. Try to always attack two bases at the same time to scatter and confuse the defenders. A sound strategy is actually to appoint a team of people to Baradin Hold and attack/CC the defenders that resurrect. If they're stupid enough, they stop and fight around the resurrection point, giving your assault groups plenty of opportunity to capture the three bases.

If you cap a base, leave some defence, not so much to gimp your assaults though. Just enough so that the base is not retaken immediately and your attackers have slightly more time to capture the last base.

Rules of thumb

There are two major rules of thumb, two major principles of a succesful attack that I know of:

The first one: if you attack, attack quickly and en masse. Gather up outside the base before you attack. Give the defenders as few reaction time as possible. If you slowly start attacking, they know immediately which base you are going for and will react accordingly. Blitzkrieg, blitzkrieg, blitzkrieg. If a base is not taken in less than a few minutes time, it is almost always the better option to retreat and choose another base to attack.

Second one: don't wait too long for a base to fall. If you see you are getting the upper hand, start moving to the next base in line and make sure everyone knows which base that is. If you wait until the base is completely in your hands (ie. The Alliance/Horde has taken Ironclad Garrison/Slagworks/Warden's Vigil message comes up) you are too late and have given the defending team way too much time to get your previously conquered base back. In fact, you should not even wait until the message comes up that the other faction is losing the base, but for that you need immaculate communication in your team. Because, well, of course some people should stay behind to finish the job and capture the base.

The main principle: whenever you have a base, cap a second one and then cap the third before one of the other bases falls. That's why capping two bases at the same time is a major victory and a moment that could turn the battle in your favor quickly. It is very hard to do, and that is why the defenders have an advantage, but your advantage is that you get several chances, and you only need that one moment to win.

TLDR version

Take towers, attack fast and en masse, and move fast between bases. Surprise the defenders, scatter them, and use blitzkrieg tactics.

General hints for both sides

The most important rule for both attacking and defending is to FIGHT AT THE DAMN FLAG !!!Sorry, getting carried away, but I cannot stress this enough. It is frustrating to be defending a base and then see more than half of your people follow a few attackers all the way across the base and sometimes even outside of it. Hug that flag like it's your mommy if you are defending, and if you are attacking make your way to the flag as fast as possible, with the entire attacking team currently on that base. It's the key to capping as fast as possible, and the team that caps faster with the same amount of people, usually wins the entire match.

Don't fight on the roads. The only exception to that might be when you are attacking TB and you want to keep the ressers from the defending faction busy. But in that case, do it in one group and only when the situation is currently favoring it. In all other cases, fighting on the roads serves nothing at all. In fact, most of the time a few of us are moving to a base, whenever we encounter the opposite faction we just run past each other without harming one another, proving that we both have an agenda to follow. Fighting on the roads doesn't serve your team at all.

There is some strategy and a lot of teamwork involved for either side to have a chance of winning. It is always a good idea to form a raid before entering, just like in any BG, premades always have more chance over PUG's. If that is somehow not possible, make sure to have clear communication from the earliest moment on, and if you have an experienced player in there who clearly knows what to do, be prepared to listen and/or make other people prepared to listen! On the other hand, if you are an experienced player or you know the strategy, explain things as fast as possible in a way people understand and always remain friendly and calm. People are usually more inclined to listen that way. Nothing breaks up a PvP team as fast as nerdraging and putting the blame on others with a lot of yelling and swearing involved.

Been said already, and it should be obvious, but whenever you assault a base, attack in groups. Going in one by one is a sure way to get killed off one by one, leaving you with more resurrection time and not getting you any closer to capturing whatsoever. Wait in front of the base until you are confident enough to attack.

So, finally. I don't know if there is much more I can say. I hope this guide will solve many frustrations. Remember just this: Tol Barad is brutal. Both of these strategies above, attack and defence, rely a lot on the other team making too many mistakes. But they are both very viable and if performed flawlessly, require a very focused enemy team to break through it.

Комментарии

Комментарий от toxicairwaves

I actually found this guide very useful. I don't know much about PvP but I'm willing to work at getting better. Wintergrasp was somewhat challenging for me, so the notion of my first foray into Tol Barad had me quite nervous. I'll give it a go with your advice in mind. Thanks!

Комментарий от Grarthor

A thorough guide, but not very readable; some images or demonstrations would push it up to 5/5.

Комментарий от snowieken

I'll see what I can do. :)

Комментарий от chrysophase

Good guide. I'd just like to point out that the resurection points is also an advantage for the attacking side. Imagine a heated battle for a base. The attackers res much closer and can return well before the defenders.

So the defenders have the advantage of mobility, but the attackers have the advantage of focus.